Text exercises

1. True or false?

1. Business letter doesn’t differ from personal letter.

2. Business letter should be written with short sentences and simple words.

3. You don’t have to put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

4. When you send a business letter you create an image only of your company.

5. A business letter should be the longer the better.

2. Find equivalents in Russian for:

- formal communication - manipulative - alienate - proof-read - bored bureaucrat

- readability - font - conservative company - primary goal

Unit 3 starting a career Discussion

How do people usually start their careers in your country?

Answer the following questions:

1. What kind of job are you interested in?

a) well-paid;

b) interesting;

c) large and famous company;

d) quiet;

e) in an industry which has a future;

f) prestigious;

g) not to sit the whole day in the office;

h) to travel a lot.

2. What position would you like to have:

a) to manage people – manager;

b) to work for someone else – an employee;

c) to be your own boss – self-employed, businessman;

d) to be responsible for everything – top manager, director;

e) to work for the state – state employee.

TEXT

The online job market

Vocabulary

To offer – предлагать, делать предложение

Ad – (advertisement) реклама

To advertise – афишировать, рекламировать

Resume (Amer. English) – резюме

A job-seeker – человек, ищущий работу

Filter – фильтр (компьютерная программа, отфильтровывающая подходящих претендентов на работу)

Hiring - наем

To make a revenue – составлять доход (выручку)

Headhunting – подборка высококвалифицированных кадров

Monster.com, the world`s biggest online job-search site, shows how electronic marketplaces reach more people and can offer more efficiency than physical markets. It also shows that money can be made in such markets: Monster has a long record of profitability.

Jeff Taylor, who launched the site in 1994, says that the Monster.com name is the firm`s “single most important success factor”. It introduces an image of youthful fun in what is basically a boring business. Supporting the brand is a big advertising budget which accounts for a quarter of the firm`s costs. He runs expensive ads during key sporting events such as the Super Bowl.

Job-seekers supply resumes and employers pay to scan them or to post job ads. Most of the services that job-seekers get are free, but they have to pay for a service that allows them to contact each other for advice and career management. They can use this service to ask each other questions about, say, what it is like to work for a firm that they are thinking of joining.

The main contribution of Monster has been to speed up hiring and vastly increase the accuracy of the job-search process. “You can post a job at 2 pm and get your first response at 2:01”, Mr Taylor says proudly. And an employer who knows exactly what he wants can use Monster`s filters to search vast numbers of resumes with precise accuracy. Monster is a serious threat to newspapers, which historically made 40 % of their revenues from carrying ads, up to half of which were for staff. Headhunting firms have also lost business, because demand for their help in filling lower-level jobs has fallen.

The online job market works well for workers and employers who know what they want. It works badly for people who are unsure. Check that your resume says clearly what kind of job you want. The filters will then make sure that it reaches the right human resource departments.

The Reality Of the Job Market

• The job market is constantly evolving as people are changing jobs more often

• More graduates are entering the job market

• The job market is starting to become more reliant on technology, so the job market will require advanced computer skills

• The job market and the economy, in general, are becoming more global as technology increases the communication abilities within the job market

• Fewer jobs exist in larger corporations

• The job market is starting to trend towards smaller companies

• Service sector jobs are having more prevalence in the job market.

Most jobs in the job market do not simply just pop open. Most jobs are filled before they need to be advertised. To succeed in the job market, you will have to get employers before they advertise on the job market. Almost everybody will have many careers during their lifetimes. Twenty percent of people now change jobs every year. Ten percent of people change careers every year. The average job seeker entering the job market can expect almost no security from their employer. Job security will have to come almost entirely from the individual and through self improvement. Every career-oriented individual will have to have many educations. The most important thing to prepare yourself for is to change and to take total responsibility for your continuing education, your own retirement, health care, and life insurance.